Brixton 1 at Club Open Indoor Regionals (Redbridge)

Chasing Kettering

Club Open Indoor Regionals arrived and Brixton kitted up to attend the Redbridge region hosted in Fairlop, Essex.

Fantastic Mr Fox

Our first game of the day was against Fantastic Mr Fox, despite their low seeding we knew not to underestimate them, the ban on fox hunting had allowed them to build a strong squad and they really took the game to us. It was hard fought all the way through but after going down early on we were never quite able to fight our way back. A loss to start the day but by no means a bitter one.

Final score – FMF 10 – 7 Brixton

Chesham Kites 2

After warming up against Fox our offence really clicked into gear for this game, with minimal (if any) unforced errors we punched in a number of goals to take a commanding lead. The Kites were unable to close the gap and we finished up with the W

Brixton 8 – 2 Chesham Kites 2

Reading 2

We weren’t sure what to expect from Reading 2 and so came out hard, our O was super slick by this point and the goals kept on coming. In the end a similar story to the Chesham game and another solid win for the Brix. Our zone D was starting to take shape nicely with Jon providing a solid, unfaltering chase up front and solid play from the mids and deeps we managed to concede only 4 points from 2 games. Not too shabby.

Brixton 12 – 2 Reading 2

Mustard

We knew this was going to be a tough game, they were the highest seed in our group and had impeccable throws and a crazy amount of fitness and squad depth. They took the game early on and we couldn’t find a way to slow their up-beat offence and their man defence was t-Yighte (tight). We played hard but in the end lost, bravely.

Mustard 9 – 4 Brixton

It was on this note that we decided to call it a day, and head back to our respective dwellings for fast food, solitude and slumber.

Sunday

Much to my surprise (and I’m sure I wasn’t alone) Saturday evening was swiftly followed by Sunday morning. We awoke and each made our way to the arena for our 9:10 game. We could argue until the cows went grey, became long in the tooth and then made their way home about who was or wasn’t on time but in the end we were all ready to go for the first game against Reading 1.

Reading 1

I don’t remember this game but looking at the score I don’t think I enjoyed it. We know Reading were going to be strong and strong they were. This wasn’t our last chance to qualify but losing here meant that we would need to win out in order to make it to Kettering.

Reading 10 – 5 Brixton

Cut

Cut! So name because seemingly in a fit of vengeful rage they had cut the sleeves off of every item of clothing they owned, leaving them only able to play in vests. This was a very close, intense and enjoyable game, low level scoring but high level fun! We once again employed our zone defence and the chaps from Cut just couldn’t hack it. Their offence consisted of

Put tall man in end-zone behind Dan

Have tall man raise hand expectantly

Panic throw

Dan gets the D

Repeat as needed

I have to give it to them though, they were quick and their D was very tough to break down.

Brixton 5 – 3 Cut

Flump Tales

This game, to stay in contention, we needed a win. We knew it was going to be tough going in but we went in anyway, and it was tough. We came out with an Iso offense but Flump were having none of it, they shut down our Iso and our offence stalled. On defence our zone was still stout but we couldn’t hold them down and they grabbed the lead. I’ve always believed that if the other team scores 7 then we must score at least 8 to win and unfortunately we couldn’t do that.

Brixton 4 – 7 Flump Tales

Jest We Forget

And so the moment we’d waited for all weekend arrived… the 11v12. This to take 11th place, the Lewis Bowl 2016. Having been on the wrong end of multiple JR spankings I have learned to fear any team with the word Jest. My fear was misplaced however as we really got into it for this game. Our offence was super sleek and just a little bit sexy, it was real nice. Our zone was on point, right on point, we stayed calm, communicated with each other and went out on a high.

Jest We Forget 5 – 7 Brixton

Here are my final thoughts, we didn’t make Nationals and Kettering will have to wait for another year, but there were a huge number of positives to take away from the weekend, by the end of the weekend it really felt like we had become a team and the future looks very bright.